DISASTROUS WEATHER 195 



Now, I have before related that I had hired a farm, of 

 not very large dimensions, certainly about 120 acres, to 

 which was attached 200 acres of unbroke land, consisting 

 chiefly of forest. The timber, with the exj^ense of cutting 

 it, was the landlord's, but clearing the land of the moors 

 or roots and getting it in order for cultivation was the 

 tenant's. 



Thus, what with grubbing, clearing, chalking, and well 

 manuring, I had laid out half the value of the fee-simple 

 of the land, when my first crop of wheat, -which bid fair 

 to remunerate me in a great measure for all my outlay, 

 was beaten down from its weight by incessant rains, and 

 became mildewed, blighted, and germinated. 



The first shower fell, I remember, on Midsummer Day, 

 up to which time the weather had been remarkably fine, 

 and scarcely a day passed after, up to Michaelmas, with- 

 out rain. My clover and grass crops were already for the 

 most part in swarth, and after repeated attempts to cart, 

 and the people constantly on the watch to take advantage 

 of the least appearance of sunshine, all our endeavours to 

 stack the clover were fruitless, and we were obliged to 

 draw it into the yard to make room for the second crojD, 

 which had already begun to peer above its drenched 

 predecessor — reminding one of the Frenchman in the late 

 Charles Matthew's comic tale, "whose hair grew a little 

 above his hat." 



My wheat I did not gather till the last week in 

 September, and that not till after a long and expensive 

 time, with all my Lent corn, in the damaged condition I 

 have stated. 



We had had a most jDi'opitious spring — everything 



